Word: mollenhoff
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...system cannot be repaired if the judges themselves are incompetent or corrupt. "The problems caused by unfit federal judges, whether from outright corruption, political favoritism or inability due to ill health or senility, amount to a hidden national scandal," testified Clark Mollenhoff, a Pulitzer-prizewinning former Des Moines Register reporter, at a congressional hearing on methods of disciplining judges. (Mollenhoff has been investigating the federal bench for three years.) The only way to remove federal judges now is by impeachment, a cumbersome process. Only four of the nation's federal judges have been tried and convicted by Congress...
Still, the surprising thing about the process is that it has worked relatively well. Says Mollenhoff: "Most observers agree that 90% of the nominees have gone on to become excellent federal judges. But another way of putting it is that 70 out of 700 federal judges should not have been put on the bench. That is way too many...
...Mollenhoff is a dexterous craftsman, but sometimes the progression of the book is lost in a flood of details which encumber the reader and threaten to spoil the clarity of the author's argument. The presence of numerous passages from old Des Moines Register issues leaves one with the suspicion that Mollenhoff enjoys pulling old columns from his scrapbook every so often in search of a good quote. The pace slackens especially during the last third of the narrative, where the morass of Watergate-related comings and goings leaves the reader with a "deja vu" feeling; a wish to escape...
...Mollenhoff defends the book's structure by saying, "It was necessary to give the details so that the book was not just my opinion, and so the reader has evidence that I am not misleading him. I could have put the whole message of the book into two chapters. The details, though they may be tedious, increase the credibility of Mollenhoff's thesis, making Game Plan a unique addition to the literature of Watergate...
...Mollenhoff swears he won't become enmeshed in government again. However, his short period as an official has been helpful to his journalistic career, he says, because through direct practical experience he gained a real sense of the inner workings of the presidential institution. Mollenhoff has received his warning; Game Plan for Disaster cautions those of us who have not undergone his antithetical experiences of government service and investigative journalism that the "Berlin Wall" obsessions that momentarily endangered the national political machine can too easily take over the system again...